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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27702652">WHOUFFLE WEEK 2020. Day Three: Misunderstanding/Bad Timing</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/memelovescaps/pseuds/memelovescaps'>memelovescaps</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Whouffle Week 2020 [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Doctor Who (2005)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Menstruation, Pain, Sick Character, Sick Clara Oswald, Silly, Soft Doctor (Doctor Who), Soft Twelfth Doctor, Whouffle Week (Doctor Who), bad timing, menstrual cramps, whouffle week 2020, whouffleweek2020, writing challenge</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 04:09:01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,590</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27702652</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/memelovescaps/pseuds/memelovescaps</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>WHOUFFLE WEEK 2020<br/>Day 3: Misunderstanding/Bad Timing.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>The Doctor &amp; Clara Oswin Oswald, Twelfth Doctor &amp; Clara Oswin Oswald, Twelfth Doctor/Clara Oswin Oswald</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Whouffle Week 2020 [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2023754</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>35</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Whouffle Week 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>WHOUFFLE WEEK 2020. Day Three: Misunderstanding/Bad Timing</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Day 3 of the #WhouffleWeek2020! Today’s prompts were:<br/>MISUNDERSTANDING / BAD TIMING.<br/>Set sometime in season 9 (like all my Whouffaldi fics!).<br/>This one is pretty silly and trivial. I was feeling pretty miserable and uninspired, and that's where this story comes from. I just wanted to write about the Doctor giving some good ol' comfort to Clara.<br/>ENJOY!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Clara!” he exclaimed whooshing out of the TARDIS, his jacket willowing with his movements and revealing the red lining of the inside. He couldn’t wait to show her the planet they were going to visit, he had a feeling Clara would love the exotic marketplace that...</p><p>“Go away” automatically came a whiny voice from the bed that stopped his thoughts.</p><p>Huh. Not what the Doctor was expecting. His eyes scanned the room and he deduced that the pile on the bed was not discarded clothes as he’d initially thought, but blankets and pillows thrown around, and that Clara was somehow underneath all of that. He briefly wondered how she was able to breathe under all that weight, and was tempted to ask about it, but decided otherwise.</p><p>“Clara?” he asked instead, this time more tentatively.</p><p>“It’s Tuesday, not Wednesday, you got your date wrong again. And I’m not up for running off anywhere today, Doctor. So just go away” the same voice said. It sounded a bit tense and with an edge of uncontrolled anger, which made the Doctor frown. He hadn’t done anything to make Clara mad, had he?</p><p>“What’s wrong? Are you ill?” alarm bells started to go off in his mind, and he took one more step towards the bed, his hand already reaching for his sonic screwdriver.</p><p>“Yeah, you could say that” she snorted, her voice sounded strained. He waited for her to continue but she didn’t, so he looked at her bedside table. There was a half-full glass of water and what seemed to be some pills next to it. So, definitely ill. He waved the sonic screwdriver in his hand and pointed it at Clara, or rather, at the bundle beneath the covers and blankets that was supposed to be Clara.</p><p>“The sonic screwdriver isn’t picking up anything, except for a slight imbalance in your hormones” the Doctor murmured, frowning at the device as if it were able to give him some answers if he frowned at it long enough.</p><p>“For god’s sakes, I’ll have to spell it out” Clara sighed as she slowly emerged from underneath the covers.</p><p>The Doctor looked at her and was surprised at how pale she looked. Her hair was in disarray, deep shadows under her eyes and she was frowning, her eyes glistening with something akin to pain. He immediately walked to her side, his hand automatically going to her forehead to check the temperature. No fever, that was good.</p><p>“Doctor, it’s nothing to worry about,” she said as she slowly batted his hand away. He noticed she was wearing a thick jumper and the temperature of her apartment seemed to be a bit higher than usual, but she didn’t seem to be hot “I’m just... at that time of the month. And it’s kicking my ass. So, no travels for me today, sorry. Come back next Wednesday”</p><p>Clara seemed to be ready to go back under the covers, but the Doctor finally reacted to her words. He was a man and a Time Lord at that, but that didn’t mean he was completely insensitive or ignorant of the issue. After all, he’d had his fair share of human women accompanying him in his travels and he knew what Clara was talking about. But he’d never seen her being affected by pain and cramps before, and he couldn’t deny he was a bit agitated.</p><p>He slowly sat down on the bed next to her, and wriggling his fingers to make sure they were warm, he put one hand under the covers and placed it on top of her lower stomach, giving it the smallest amount of pressure. Her jumper had rolled up with her movement in bed and while he was mostly touching her over the fabric, the fingertips were touching the warm and bloated skin.</p><p>“Does it hurt?”</p><p>“Like hell” she answered, wincing slightly. He could tell by the way she frowned that the pain was much more severe than she was letting show.</p><p>“What can I do?”</p><p>“Nothing, Doctor, it will pass, just...”</p><p>“Maybe some tea? I know hot beverages sometimes help” the Doctor insisted. He didn’t realize it until later, but his fingers kept pressuring different points along Clara’s lower stomach, gently massaging the area in the hopes that it would relieve some of the pain.</p><p>Clara seemed to understand he wasn’t particularly keen on leaving, so she sighed and gave him a small smile.</p><p>“Tea would be nice” she finally answered.</p><p>“I’ll be right back” he answered as he got up, extracting his hand from under the blankets, and quickly disappeared into the kitchen. Clara sighed and let her body fall back into the mattress, already missing the comforting hand and the gentle massage. She heard him rummaging in the kitchen and silently hoped that the Doctor could manage to use a simple kettle to boil water, God knew she had had to replace a few household appliances after the Doctor had been trying to fix them.</p><p>She was relieved when the Doctor emerged again with two steaming cups of tea and a few biscuits he’d placed on a plate, all being served on a tray which he left on her bedside table, next to the glass and the pills.</p><p>“Take the pills. They’ll help” he ordered, although his voice was warm and kind. She nodded and sat up, wincing in pain as the movement jolted her senses, and rested her back against the bedpost as she reached to grab the steaming mug of tea. The Doctor observed her slow movements, his mind racing to find a better solution than warm tea.</p><p>The Doctor sat down on the chair next to her bed, grabbing his cup and taking a sip, wincing when it burned his tongue.</p><p>“You don’t have to stay, Doctor. I know being in one place for too long is boring for you” Clara said after taking a sip of her tea.</p><p>The Doctor sat back on the chair and observed her. She was right, he wasn’t cut out for that. He could leave, he knew it wouldn’t be polite but the option was open for him. However, the thought of leaving Clara knowing she was at home in pain disturbed him immensely, and he shook his head.</p><p>“Not happening” he simply answered.</p><p>Clara seemed to be too tired to respond, so she nodded and took another sip of her tea.</p><p>When they finished and Clara put the mug back on the tray, the Doctor energetically got up from his seat.</p><p>“May I try something?” he asked as he rubbed his hands against each other to warm them up, although after holding a steaming cup of tea for the last few minutes, they were surely warm. Clara nodded and allowed him to slowly move the covers so he could sneak his hands without removing them.</p><p>Very tenderly he rolled up the jumper, exposing her stomach, and placed both hands on it. The skin to skin contact was very welcome, and as soon as he began his exploration he could notice just how bloated it felt. He gently pushed her and she let her body fall back onto the mattress.</p><p>“I’ll make it better, Clara” he murmured as he leaned closer to her, his fingers already massaging the skin, very tenderly but still applying pressure to strategic points.</p><p>He felt Clara sigh and move under his ministrations, and kept a trained eye on her face, to see if her expression changed to one of pain once again. But it didn’t seem so, it actually relaxed after a few strokes, the pressure relieving some of the pain she felt. Her frown disappeared and, after a few minutes of steady work, he heard her sigh audibly in relief.</p><p>“Any better?” he asked in a murmur. She nodded, her eyes closed.</p><p>“Much” she answered, her voice filled with sleep and her accent showing. The Doctor smiled tenderly, his eyes softening at the sight before him. His hand kept massaging her lower stomach, never once stopping, until he realized she had almost fallen asleep.</p><p>He then slowly tried to extricate his hand from under the covers, but as soon as he made a move he felt Clara’s hands on top of his, stopping him and sharp eyes looking at him with a silent plea.</p><p>“You’re warm” she murmured, “stay?”</p><p>It must’ve been eyes filled with a plea he knew he couldn’t refuse, or perhaps knowing she was in pain and trying not to show it. Or it could’ve been his own exhaustion. The fact was that the Doctor didn’t know what prompted him to slowly nod his head and put his warm hands again on Clara’s stomach to resume his massage. And to be honest with himself, at that moment he didn’t care.</p><p>“Of course, Clara” he whispered, his voice gruff but deeply affectionate.</p><p>As soon as he resumed his ministrations Clara returned to her previous state of almost-sleep, she wasn't completely dozing off but she was incredibly relaxed.</p><p>“I’m sorry, I always have bad timing” he commented, not even knowing if she could hear him. But she could, as she shook her head slightly.</p><p>“Actually I think that just this once, your timing wasn't too bad,” she said with a smile before taking a deep breath. A few seconds later she was out to the world.</p><p>The Doctor kept slowly massaging her lower stomach as a small smile crept in his lips. Clara was right, coming to her house today had been, in fact, perfect timing.</p>
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